The Growth of US Imperialism
Chapter 10
Lesson One: Isolation to Imperialism:
The Foreign Policy Spectrum
One day at school you notice a huge ring
of students jostling and pushing. As you
get closer, you hear some of the students
yelling “Fight!” Like the rest, you want
to see what is happening. Finally
finding a vantage point, you see two
students threatening one another. One is
a good friend; the other is a former
friend and current enemy who owes you
money. What will you do?
1.
2.
3.
4.
Turn away and leave because the fight does
not concern you and getting involved will
only mean trouble.
Convince a couple of friends to help you
separate the two students before they hurt
each other.
Get into the fight on your friend’s side and
punch out the former friend who owes you
money since he deserves it.
Punch out both students to show the rest of
the school who is the toughest kid on
campus.
In this activity, you will be examining the
choices the United States has made in its
foreign policy relations with other
countries. These choices are:
Isolationism
Collective security
Internationalism
Imperialism
They parallel the choices you made as
approaches to the fight on campus.
Isolationism
Strict non-involvement in the
affairs of other nations
Collective Security
Working with other countries
to influence world affairs
Internationalism
Intervening in other countries’
affairs to promote national
interests and/or national
security
Imperialism
Extending power by acquiring
territory around the globe or
exploiting weaker nations to
serve national interests
Directions:
 Read the description of the foreign policy
action.
 Discuss where it should be placed on the
spectrum.
 As a class, we will shade the space or
spaces that corresponds to the foreign
policy stance you think the action
represents.
 Explain why you placed the item where you
did in the “Reason” box.
Washington’s Farewell Address
In the late 1700s many nations formed their
foreign policy in such a way as to maintain
a balance of power with other countries.
Countries often sought out alliances to
ensure that they had enough allies to
prevent an attack by an unfriendly nation.
But George Washington tried to steer the
United States in a different direction. In his
1796 Farewell Address he said, “The great
rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign
nations is in extending our commercial
relations [but] to have with them as little
political connection as possible.”
Washington’s Farewell Address, con’t.
He argued that trade with other nations would
benefit Americans, but that “entangling
alliances” would draw the United States
into undesirable conflicts. Washington’s
counsel to avoid military alliances was
followed throughout the 1800s and
remained a major foreign policy
consideration during the twentieth century
as well.
Pick an answer or
answers!
Draft of George
Washington’s
Farewell Address
Answer:
 Isolationism
Reason:
 Washington rejected the alliance system.
Instead, he wanted the United States to
remain politically independent from other
nations.
The Monroe Doctrine
In December 1823 President James Monroe
issued his final message to Congress.
Concerned about European colonization in
Latin America and on the West coast,
Monroe declared, “the American
continents…are henceforth not to be
considered as subject for future colonization
by any European powers.” In other words,
the US would not tolerate European
interference in the Western Hemisphere.
The Monroe Doctrine
This statement, known as the Monroe
Doctrine, has come to be one of the most
important foreign policy statements in US
history. In the 1820s the US did not have
the military strength to back up Monroe’s
words. However, in the years since
Monroe’s speech, the US has maintained a
keen interest in Latin American affairs and
has sent troops to that region more often
than to any other region in the world.
Pick an answer or
answers!
The Monroe Doctrine
Answer:
 Half internationalism, half imperialism
Reason:
 Monroe believed that the US had the right
to influence events in Latin America and to
warn other nations to stay away.
The Mexican-American War
In 1846 President James Polk sent US troops into
an area of Texas just north of the Rio Grande
that was claimed by both the US and Mexico.
Polk was intent on achieving “manifest
destiny” – the belief that the US was destined
to occupy the territory between the Atlantic
and the Pacific Oceans – by extending US
territory across the southwest from Texas to
California. When Mexico refused to sell this
territory to the US, tensions between the two
countries grew. In early May 1846, Mexican
and US troops engaged in a skirmish in the
disputed area.
The Mexican-American War
President Polk expressed outrage at the loss of
“American blood upon American soil,” and
called for war with Mexico. Congress was
divided on the question of war with Mexico.
Abraham Lincoln believed that a war with
Mexico was nothing more than naked
aggression. Nevertheless, the US went to
war, and by 1848 had invaded Mexico and
conquered the territory from Texas to the
Pacific Ocean, an area now encompassing
New Mexico, Arizona, and California.
Pick an answer or
answers!
The North American Invasion,
First Battles
The Mexican-American War
Answer:
 Imperialism
Reason:
 The US declared war with Mexico to gain
power and to force Mexico to give up
territory so the US could achieve “manifest
destiny” – land stretching from coast to
coast.
US Entry Into World War I
In 1914 war broke out in Europe, with
Germany and Austria-Hungary battling
against France, Great Britain, and Italy. The
US immediately declared neutrality. In
spite of a declaration of neutrality, the US
supplied more arms to the British and
French than to the Germans in the first few
years of the war. Germany retaliated by
sinking unarmed US merchant ships and a
British passenger liner carrying American
citizens, the Lusitania. In 1917 Germany
attempted to negotiate a treaty with Mexico
in which Mexico would attack the US.
US Entry Into World War I
In return, Germany would help Mexico regain
the lands lost during the Mexican-American
War. After two years of official neutrality
but unofficial support for Britain and
France, the US declared war on Germany in
1917. President Wilson told Americans
they would fight “to make the world safe
for democracy.” The arrival in Europe of 2
million US troops helped to turn the tide of
the war, resulting in a bitter German defeat
in 1918.
Pick an answer or
answers!
Trench Warfare – “Over the top”
US Entry into WWI
Answer:
 Collective Security and Internationalism
Reason:
 The US went to war to “make the world
safe for democracy.”
US Entry Into World War II
In the 1920s many Americans believed that
involvement in WWI had been a mistake,
and that President Wilson’s proposal for a
strong international organization to prevent
future wars was overly idealistic. They
believed that the United States should
remain self-sufficient and not become
entangled in costly foreign commitments.
However, during the 1930s a frightening
series of events overseas demonstrated that
the US victory in WWI had not succeeded
in making the world “safe for democracy.”
US Entry Into World War II
Lingering hatreds from WWI produced a
passion for revenge in Germany. Fascist
and military regimes in Germany, Italy, and
Japan conquered weaker nations in Europe,
North Africa, and Asia. The US struggled
to stay out of the fighting while sometimes
providing economic and diplomatic support
for the victims of aggression. Then in 1941
a Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor forced the
reluctant country into WWII.
Pick an answer or
answers!
Iwo Jima
US Entry into WWII
Answer:
 Isolationism and Internationalism
Reason:
 The US stayed out of foreign involvements
in the 1920s and 1930s. Then it entered
WWII to help stop Fascist and military
regimes from taking over the world.
The Truman Doctrine
At the end of WWII, the wartime alliance
between the US and the Soviet Union
turned into a bitter rivalry between the two
countries – a rivalry known as the Cold War.
The Soviets, led by Josef Stalin, established
a ring of Communist states around the
Soviet border in Eastern Europe and
appeared to be looking for more territory
around the globe. In 1947 it appeared that
Communist rebels – supported by the
Soviets – were poised to take control of
Greece and Turkey.
The Truman Doctrine
The United States responded with a new US
foreign policy. President Truman asked
Congress for military aid for the
governments of both countries. In his
request for aid, Truman argued that it was
the responsibility of the US to defend “free
peoples who are resisting subjugation by
armed minorities or by outside pressure.”
Known as the Truman Doctrine, this
pronouncement committed the US to
fighting the spread of communism
throughout the world.
Pick an answer or
answers!
The Truman Doctrine
Answer:
 Internationalism
Reason:
 The Truman Doctrine committed the US to
protect countries from communism
throughout the world.
The Vietnam War
The Vietnam War, the United States’ longest
foreign war, cost 58,000 American lives and
more than $150 billion. In keeping with the
policy of containment – not allowing
communism to spread – the US goal in the
war was to preserve a separate,
independent, noncommunist government in
South Vietnam. US leaders believed that if
one country became communist, other
countries in a region would likely do so as
well.
The Vietnam War
For 30 years, under Presidents Truman, Eisenhower,
Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, the US provided
military and economic support to South Vietnam
to help it fight against the North Vietnamese
Communists, who were seeking to unite Vietnam.
The war dragged on, and support for it eroded as
television brought the fighting into American
homes, and college students nationwide protested
US policy in Southeast Asia. In 1973 the US and
Vietnam signed a peace agreement ending the war.
Two years later, the North Vietnamese invaded
South Vietnam and reunified the country under a
Communist government.
Pick an answer or
answers!
The Vietnam War Memorial,
Washington, DC
The Vietnam War
Answer:
 Half internationalism, half imperialism
Reason:
 The US believed it was stopping the spread
of an evil system, but many Vietnamese and
Americans felt that the US entered the
Vietnam War for imperialistic reasons.
The Persian Gulf War
In August 1990 the president of Iraq, Saddam
Hussein, ordered an invasion of Kuwait,
Iraq’s small, oil-rich neighbor. Hussein’s
forces easily defeated the Kuwaiti army, and
a few days later, Saddam announced that
Iraq had annexed (extended the Iraqi border
to include) Kuwait. US president George
Bush, fearing that Hussein’s aggression
threatened the security of the Middle East
and global access to Middle Eastern oil,
worked with the United Nations (UN) to put
in place an economic boycott of Iraq.
The Persian Gulf War
The UN also promised to defend Saudi Arabia
from attack and to mobilize an alliance of 28
nations to free Kuwait from Iraqi control,
through force if necessary. When Hussein
refused to withdraw from Kuwait, allied forces
struck Iraq in January 1991 in Operation
Desert Storm. The operation began with
extensive bombing raids on strategic Iraqi
targets, after which allied ground forces drove
the Iraqis from Kuwait and deep into Iraq. The
Persian Gulf War lasted only 42 days, but cost
an estimated 200,000 Iraqi lives and 240 lives
from the UN allied forces.
Pick an answer or
answers!
Oilfields on Fire, Iraq
The Persian Gulf War
Answer:
 Collective security, half internationalism,
half imperialism
Reason:
 The US worked with 28 nations to stop a
foreign aggressor and to maintain global
access to oil.
Peacekeeping in Bosnia
In 1989 communism collapsed in Eastern
Europe. In Yugoslavia, ethnic and religious
groups divided the formerly Communist
country into several smaller republics. Serbia,
the republic that had dominated Yugoslavia,
wanted to preserve a unified country. When
two other republics – Slovenia and Croatia –
declared their independence in 1991, many
Serbs living in those regions feared repression
by the new governments. As ethnic tensions
continued to rise, fierce fighting broke out
among the Serbs, Croats, and Muslims in
another republic, Bosnia.
Peacekeeping in Bosnia
The US pushed for an arms embargo (refusal to
sell weapons) to Bosnia, which the UN passed
in 1991. The UN also sought to end the
conflict by sending peacekeeping troops and
humanitarian aid. Still, the fighting continued
until mid-1995, when a NATO bombing
campaign forced the well-armed Bosnian Serbs
into peace talks. Hosted by the US in Dayton,
Ohio, these talks produced a cease-fire
agreement and the commitment of foreign
peacekeeping troops, including thousands from
the US. In 1998 US troops remained in Bosnia
to maintain the peace.
Pick an answer or
answers!
The village park was converted into a cemetery for
the war dead. Bosnian soldiers were laid to rest in
the same field where, before the war, they had
played football.
Peacekeeping in Bosnia
Answer:
 Collective security
Reason:
 The US worked through the UN to try to
stop the bloodshed in Bosnia.